Now when you arrive somewhere new, the app will automatically give you recommendations on what to order or will deliver special offers, even if the app isn’t open. It also presents a feed of what your friends are up to and recommends popular businesses in that city.

This year, Foursquare made a big push for monetization. It’s new ad product allows third-party advertisers to use its data to target ads on external ad networks. It also introduced in-app ads and paid promotions.

FourSquare was one of the earliest and most exciting success stories of the social-local-mobile movement. Since then hordes of startups have attempted to follow in its footsteps and help users figure out where to go and what to do in their city. Attracting users and making money are the two biggest challenges — FourSquare is doing well on the first front, and the new app could help with the second.

The new push notifications provide a valuable opportunity for local businesses to attract nearby(and new) consumers. It is transitioning away from gamified location check-ins and towards becoming a local discovery and recommendation app.

If Foursquare can prove that it consistently drives more visitors to businesses, it can also give those local businesses a more convincing case for why they should buy Foursquare’s paid products.

More information:

Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. By “checking in” via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtu... read more »